In The News Today!

# Britain Must Rediscover A Healthy Food Culture

The results yesterday of fresh tests carried out by retailers on their ready-meal products showed that the vast majority were clear of contamination, though positive results were found in 29 items already withdrawn from sale and in food sold to schools…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9873317/Britain-must-rediscover-ahealthy-food-culture.html

# No Toxic Effects From Controversial Food Packet Chemical, Say Experts

A controversial industrial chemical used in food packaging and baby’s bottles that has been linked to a range of human disorders including diabetes and obesity may be an innocent bystander rather than the cause of problems, according to experts …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/15/no-toxic-effects-chemical-experts

# German Food Scandals

From eggs to horsemeat, a veritable catalog of tainted food has plagued Germany. DW presents a roundup of food scandals affecting the country over the past few years – and some measures politicians and individuals are taking to keep from getting sick.

http://www.dw.de/german-food-scandals/a-16600917

# 29 Items Test Positive For Horsemeat – Food Standards Agency: Live Coverage

The tests, conducted by the industry and reported to the Food Standards Agency, found 29 positive tests in seven products such as lasagne and meatballs. The FSA said the seven products, such as Findus lasagne, were all already known to the public.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2013/feb/15/horsemeat-food-standards-agency-delivers-report-live-coverage

Extra, extra, read all about it!

Horse meat scandal: cancer causing horse drug has entered food chain, minister…

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Mr Heath disclosed that the FoodStandards Agency’s recent tests on horse carcasses slaughtered in the UK found traces of the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, or bute, in eight carcasses. The minister said …

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/9870002/Horse-meat-scandal-cancer-causing-horse-drug-has-entered-food-chain-minister-announces.html

Valentine’s dinners: top chefs and food critics on their most romantic meals

If you’re someone who works with and loves food, it is rarely a secondary concern, but for many, what was eaten was just the icing on the cake: what made these meals special was not just what was on the plate but everything that surrounded it – in …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/feb/14/valentines-dinners-top-chefs-romantic-meals

The biggest ever takeover in the food industry: Warren Buffet buys Heinz in …

“The Heinz brand is one of the most respected brands in the global food industry and this historic transaction provides tremendous value to Heinz shareholders,” Heinz CEO William Johnson said as the company’s share price rocketed by 20 per cent in …

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sage-of-omaha-warren-buffett-shells-out-23bn-for-heinz-foods-8495231.html

lol

Fruits and vegetables in Season

 

I travelled to Northern Nigeria recently, Zaria to be precise, the nostalgic home of my breeding and buttering. En route I saw the fruits and vegetables that were in season. The colors were so vibrant, it was as if they were screaming out to me and so I could not help but stop and take pictures.

There were carrots, oranges, tangerines, pineapples, bananas and coconuts. These are fruits indigenous to Nigeria, all home grown. Unlike imported fruits (e.g. apples and pears and grapes) which are expensive, these are much cheaper especially when they are in season. So take advantage of this and stock your fridge. Make sure you buy fruits and vegetables when you go shopping.

I cannot overemphasize the health benefits of fruits and vegetables but one advise I would give which works for me is to have them ready to eat and accessible so that you can use them as snacks. I have found that people put on weight at times due to snacking and common snacks are foods normally high in calories like biscuits, cakes, chocolates, confectionaries etc. These snacks offer the advantage of being ready-to-eat and so come to the rescue when you’re feeling peckish. However the healthy alternatives like salads take time to prepare, a luxury you cannot afford when your cravings are screaming at you.

So to help yourself, you should have fruits and veggies ready and waiting in the fridge. For example scrape, wash and cut the carrots to have carrot sticks; peel oranges into segments; cut pineapple into cubes; the list is endless, be creative, all I ask is that you have these healthier snack options. Then once in a blue moon, you can indulge in the more calorific snacks. Bon appetite!

Yours foodfully.

 

 

 

 

 

Una well done o! Part 4

In this video you’ll see:
• Women packaging amala.
• Women assisting as I cook Egusi soup.
• Stack of firewood.
• Fried chicken tactfully being stolen by my friend/camera woman. Do you still wonder why the meat has to be kept in a strong room? lol.
• “Licking my hand shamelessly” according to my friend.
• Okay, the “do you like the bum bum?” question was uncalled for, rotfl.

In this concluding part of the “Una well done o!” series, you see that it was an interesting adventure and I conclude with a picture of me showing my secret double life: Chef by day and groover by night. If I didn’t know this myself, my bones told me the next morning, lol.

Una well done o! Part 3

In this video you’ll see:
• Woman grating okro.
• Hear the constant “una well done” above the din like it’s some kind of secret code pass, lol.
• Yours truly blending condiments.
• It’s lovely to see that at the human-food interface of communal cooking different generations meet and that there are interactions between the modern indoor and local outdoor kitchens.

Una well done o! Part 2

In this video you’ll see:
• Man cutting bush meat.
• Women cutting vegetables (ugu).
• Woman boning dry-fish.
• Caterers cooking outdoors with firewood.
• Turkeys feeling among, lol.

Una well done o! Part 1

The up coming videos were done to show communal wedding cooking in Nigeria in an unscripted style involving actual people and actual events. My sweet friends helped me with the videos which were named “Una well done o!” because a lot of this greeting which means “good job” were intermittently said even when the speaker didn’t need to say it.

The event was my best friend’s wedding and friends, family and relatives came together to cook. The actual wedding day cooking was to be handled by professional caterers while for days leading up to the wedding, well-wishers did the cooking.

The communal cooking is a fun time in which women come together to eat much more than cooking along with manifestations of “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Once the food is ready, it has to be packed in warmers and sent to strong rooms where mean and stern people guard the food so that the food is not finished by the well-wishing chefs. If that is done for the food then trust me, you don’t want to know the measures taken to safeguard the meat, lol.

I was caught in the middle of all this as the father of the groom after eating soup I cooked at an event specially requested I cook soups for him; egusi, edikaikong and kpocho (a Tiv bush meat sauce).

On the one hand, some of the women were impressed by a young lady like me cooking with ethnic methods while some made it a point of duty to tell me all the things I was doing wrong. One even judged me instantly and said that since I didn’t use her method, my soup was not going to be good. All that drama…smh, just kept me entertained…lol.

Anyway I’m not bragging (just as one of my university professors used to say just before he went on a bragging spree) but it seems my soups were nice as the lady in question in addition to other women rushed the food once it was ready all in the name of tasting. So much so that I had to get help in order to retrieve the soups from the war zone and convey them safely to the strong rooms, hehehe.

By the end of the day there were no hard feelings and I would readily cook with these respectable women again if I had the chance. It was fun, they helped me and I helped them. I learnt stuff from them and they learnt from me. Guess that’s what community is all about.

Next come the videos.

To be continued…

Extra! Extra!

# UN Resumes Food Aid In North Mali

The World Food Programme has relaunched its distribution of food and nutritional supplements in the north of Mali,” the UN food agency’s spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva. She said seven boats carrying 600 tonnes of aid left the …

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130205/un-resumes-food-aid-north-mali

# Food Discovery App Burpple Now Available On Android

The app now boosts users from 140 countries and 4,000 cities who have shared 300,000 “foodmoments,” including photos of dishes consumed and check-ins at different establishments. In addition to functioning as a social discovery platform, Burpple also …

http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/04/food-discovery-app-burpple-now-available-on-android/

# Expert Says Sport And Food Connection Too Strong To Ignore

Spectator sports and food—often high-calorie or low-nutrition—have long gone hand-in-hand, yet FDA regulations geared toward calorie transparency at restaurant chains ignore this relationship. Popular fast-food restaurants soon will be required to …

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-expert-sport-food-strong.html

Wakey, wakey!

Love chips, love bread, love ketchup? why not have a chip sarnie (butty) for breakfast?